


Pomegranate Seeds

by water_lili_es



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ancient Greek Religion & Lore Fusion, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Inspired by Hades and Persephone (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), M/M, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Underworld
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:21:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28581912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/water_lili_es/pseuds/water_lili_es
Summary: Silence hangs between them. Hyunjin’s naturally calculating and intimidating eyes are boring into Seungmin’s, which held the practiced poise and grace that he was associated with. The God of Spring raises his head by a modicum, exuding a sense of determination that he was not known for possessing.“No.” almost mockingly, he giggles as he speaks.Hyunjin raises a brow. “Excuse me?”“No.” Seungmin repeats, tauntingly this time.“That was not a request, sweet Seungmin.”“And I was not asking for your permission to stay.” Seungmin answers. With the practical isolation by his mother, Seungmin was particularly spoiled. He was granted whatever his heart desired; and right now he wanted to stay in the Underworld.“And I will have you know,” Seungmin narrowed his eyes as the flowers in his hair wilted with every syllable he spoke, framing Seungmin’s figure with ashen petals and leaves falling over his face. “that I can command death as easily as you can.”
Relationships: Hwang Hyunjin/Kim Seungmin
Comments: 42
Kudos: 164





	Pomegranate Seeds

_“She wore silk dresses  
and flower crowns  
And she was loved,  
and then she was stolen;  
This is the story they tell  
They speak not of her rages  
when she would pull rain from the clouds,  
and the flowers beneath her feet would turn black;  
They do not speak of how she laughed  
when Icarus fell from the sky in a golden plume;  
They do not speak of how she grew flowers  
because she enjoyed watching them  
fade and die;  
And they do not speak of how  
she pounded at the gates of Hell  
until they opened,  
and how she let the pomegranate juice  
drip from her smiling lips,  
and how even Hades  
trembled under her gaze.”_

_—on persephone_

Seungmin was his mother’s pride and joy. He was grace and poise in its purest form of innocence. He was ethereal, with fair skin and soft features that could only be considered as the epitome of young beauty. His laugh is light and kisses the eardrums with whispers of happiness, his smile as refreshing as the blossoms that bloomed on his command.

He is often seen in long robes that flowed smoothly between the dance of his limbs and the song of the winds, with a wreathe of flowers as the crown on his head; statices and carnations flourishing in the way that only the touch of the God of Spring and Nature can make happen.

Seungmin is the seed of the fruits of the fields, honoured by altars overflowing with crystals and flowers and jewels that express the joy of spring— his eyes as green as his touch and hair as golden as his heart.

Sweet, balletic Seungmin whose words never mean any harm and whose eyes never hold the trace of a glare; whose mother deemed too good for the world and too good even for all the greatest gods and goddesses to interact with on a daily basis. And no matter how his mother denies this, it is the reason they live as far away from the others as Olympus would allow.

He doesn’t see anything unsatisfying with it, though, because then he can wander the fields all day. He can live his days delighting himself with picking fruit and flowers to bring home to his mother at sundown.

He can watch the colour drain from the Earth’s harvest, for like how he gifts them life, he also presents them death. And as he watched reds and oranges and blues and violets fade to withered browns, he laughs, eyes turning into crescents that could rival the moon that Artemis watches over.

He is his mother’s pride and joy and she has failed to teach him how to separate Spring’s Breath and the Kiss of Death. He has learned to bring them both.

Dandelions, fireweeds, and speedwells wilt in his wake, his whispers of happiness hushed as he strained to locate the sound he picked up on minutes ago. The fields and forests surrounding him are in no way forbidden yet it was rare for Seungmin to have company, even that on his own doting mother’s.

It was a curious noise, one he’s heard about but never personally heard until now. The pounding of fists and the cries of terror were no doubt the song of the Underworld.

Seungmin has never heard it before, but now he has, and if it means that he’s near the Gates of Hell then it also means that he’s going to see it for himself. He doesn’t’ know when an opportunity like this will next present itself, so Seungmin had half a mind and full resolution to not turn the other cheek and walk away.

He stumbles on an overgrown root and he giggles, clear and mesmerizing, as he kicks his ankle free from the root. It curls in on itself until the root is dead and Seungmin goes on his way until he wanders upon a cave, mostly covered with vines and thorns but there is still the distinguishable shape of the cave’s mouth— a monster’s jaw that’s ready to snap at the minuest trace of life.

Curious and in awe, Seungmin stares at the entrance of the Underworld. He takes step after step, wondering about what is strong enough to compel him to do so; and then what is strong enough to stop him. He reaches out and takes a thorn between his thumb and pointer finger until a rose the colour of blood sprouts in its place seconds after.

Then, above the crying and screaming and yelling, came another sound. It was barking, the yapping of a puppy’s but at the same time sounding much, much older and much, much bigger than that of a small dog’s.

One, two, three dogs. There were three dogs at most inside the cave and Seungmin’s emerald eyes glittered with jubilance as the desire to step inside the cave intensified at the presence of animals.

“Hello.” Seungmin smiled in wonder whilst he entered the cave. It’s dark and eerie and empty save for the giant three-headed dog on a leash, its fur black as night and looked as soft as silk. A paw flicked at one of its button noses repeatedly, the eyes of that head closed, leaving four beady eyes to examine the god steadily making his way inside the cave it was seemingly guarding the entrance of.

Anybody else would have been frightened at the sight in front of him, but Seungmin’s expression only brightened as he resigned himself to make friends with the hellhound.

Seungmin draws closer until he’s near enough to stand on his toes and reach over his head to pet one of the dog’s heads. All three heads melt under Seungmin’s touch instantly and the middle head lowers so that Seungmin won’t strain to stand on his toes. All six eyes are looking at him with affection now, asking for his in return.

“You’re good boys, aren’t you?” he cooed as he moved on to the left head. The cave floor under and around his feet begin to blossom with dandelions, one for every happy giggle that slips past Seungmin’s lips. “What’s your name, fellas?”

The right head— the one that had its nose pawed at before Seungmin arrived— barks for Seungmin’s attention and when he has it, he teeths at the collar around the neck of the middle head to show Seungmin. The god takes it in his hand, the other moving to pet the right head. The metal is cold on his palm, shiny despite the lack of light. He reads the name engraved, “Cerberus. That’s a very pretty name, your owner must love you a lot.”

At the mention of an owner, all three heads perk up, three mouths opening wide and the corners curving into as best a smile as three-headed hellhounds can manage.

“Aww,” he cooed at the reaction. “you’re taken care of, I can tell. Are you spoiled little doggies, hm?”

The middle head bends down once again and nuzzles into Seungmin’s chest, the left and right letting out what seems to be guilty whimpers at the accusation. Seungmin laughs again and dandelions that sprout from the barren soil of the dark cave almost look like little lights.

“Where’s your owner?” he asked as more curiosity bubbled inside him. Stories he’s heard of Cerberus’s owner are beginning to contradict the way the hellhound is reacting to him. “Can I meet him? Do you know where he is?”

All three heads lick at Seungmin’s cheeks affectionately. He laughs. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’, Cerberus.”

The middle head barks in reply before the right head takes his robs in his mouth gently to lead him deeper in the cave, leaving the plot of dandelions behind.

The exterior of the cave didn’t look too deep but Seungmin is a god, born and bred in Mount Olympus, where nigh everything is not at it seems. The interior was vast, with a one-way passage from the entrance, where Cerberus was standing guard, to the opening where Cerberus was leading him.

His robes are let go off, the bite so gentle that there are no creases at all. He almost frowns at the lack of folds in his robes, but decided that Cerberus was only this gentle with a select number. Seungmin takes in the small dock and clear lake in front of him as Cerberus stays next to him. It’s still dark inside the cave but the water sparkled as a show of its ever-pristine state. Seungmin then takes notice of the boat on the dock, waiting for its next passenger.

“You want me to get on the boat?” he asked the hellhound.

The heads nod in unison before he falls to a sit. Seungmin, confused, watches as all three pairs of beady red eyes look at him expectantly.

It’s quiet as Seungmin attempts to deduce what the hellhound expected from him until his basic knowledge comes back to him and he feels foolish for even forgetting such a procedure.

“Oh, sorry.” he apologized with a laugh as he held his palm out in front of him. Cerberus does the same, and Seungmin sucks in a breath when a sharp claw springs from the raised paw and punctured the pad of his pointer finger.

With a relatively calm grimace, Seungmin watched as a thin streak of ichor trickled down his finger and past his wrist. The golden fluid dripped onto the cave floor, the closest thing to blood that will ever stain the entrance to the Underworld, for no sign of life has come before Seungmin.

He gets licked farewell by the three heads before he steps into the rickety boat. The water moves him along the current and Seungmin waves at Cerberus with a lovely smile. “Bye bye, Cerberus. I’ll say ‘hello’ to your owner for you.”

Seungmin was not stupid. He may be perceived as ignorant, but he was most certainly not unaware of the identity of Cerberus’s owner. And with the directions that Cerberus had pricked into his finger, all Seungmin had to do was sit still inside the boat as the stream led him to the God of the Underworld.

The boat reaches an underground waterfall, or the back of one, and Seungmin is confused. As he draws near, the water parts, and Seungmin gasps at the world revealed before him.

There are people— souls, Seungmin realized— wandering what seems to be a large and well-kept city. If they saw him, on a boat in the stream, they pay him no mind, like they’re used to the boat bringing in a new citizen to the Underworld; and if it were not for the blood-red sun shining in place of a golden yellow, Seungmin would have been convinced that he was simply brought down to Earth.

He makes eye contact with a handful of lost souls during the remainder of the boat ride. If the souls noticed that Seungmin wasn’t dead, realization that he was a god came a second later, and that was enough protection against potentially resentful spirits.

Seungmin is brought to the heart of the Underworld, where a majestic castle stood proudly, unreachable to the wandering souls waiting for reincarnation. The wound that Cerberus pricked into his finger healed once the boat reached the end of its route, telling Seungmin that he’s reached his destination.

He steps out and watched as the boat retracts into the stream. He watches until the boat is out of sight and the water disappears as if there was never a lake there in the first place, leaving Seungmin truly alone outside the castle gates.

The gates open before Seungmin can take a step closer. He holds his breath in anticipation and a suggestion of fear as the gates open. He didn’t think he’d last very long in the Underworld to begin with, especially when he was delivered right at the God of Death’s doorstep.

The God of Death, who had hair and eyes as dark as night— impossibly dark, even darker than Cerberus’s midnight fur— and lips as full as it were red. His hair was out of his face, giving way to sharp cheekbones and an angled nose. His robes were black, making his skin look paler than it actually was, even against the red sun.

“Hyunjin.” Seungmin greeted with a bow of practiced poise. The God of Death commanded respect before speaking, as did all the other greater gods and goddesses. Seungmin did not need to be told this.

Seungmin keeps his head lowered as Hyunjin examines his bowed figure. “I sensed an intrusion. Never would I have thought that I would be faced with the God of Spring.”

“It’s because this would be the first time I would be making your acquaintance.” he answered calmly and righted his posture. “Once you know a little more about me, you’ll know I’m not what you expect.”

“It seems so.” there is a glint of amusement and curiosity in Hyunjin’s features, shown in the quirk of his mouth that was otherwise pressed into a straight line. “It is no one’s fault, however, that this is our first meeting.”

Because Hyunjin stayed in the Underworld, only rising to Olympus on occasion. And because Seungmin was isolated with his mother, who kept him to herself for most of the year.

“Even so,” Hyunjin continued. “this is not the place for you.”

“And why is that?” there is a lingering challenge in Seungmin’s words.

“This is the Underworld.” Hyunjin drawled. “To be here, you must either be a lost soul, or a ruler of the dead.”

Silence hangs between them. Hyunjin’s naturally calculating and intimidating eyes are boring into Seungmin’s, which held the practiced poise and grace that he was associated with. The God of Spring raises his head by a modicum, exuding a sense of determination that he was not known for possessing.

“No.” almost mockingly, he giggles as he speaks.

Hyunjin raises a brow. “Excuse me?”

“No.” Seungmin repeats, tauntingly this time.

“That was not a request, sweet Seungmin.”

“And I was not asking for your permission to stay.” Seungmin answers. With the practical isolation by his mother, Seungmin was particularly spoiled. He was granted whatever his heart desired; and right now he wanted to stay in the Underworld.

“And I will have you know,” Seungmin narrowed his eyes as the flowers in his hair wilted with every syllable he spoke, framing Seungmin’s figure with ashen petals and leaves falling over his face. “that I can command death as easily as you can.”

Hyunjin watches as the last dead leaf found its place by their feet. He keeps his head lowered in the best suggestion of a bow that he can ever be coerced to, before he kisses his teeth and turns to go back inside the gates of his castle.

“I suppose it can’t be helped.” he said as Seungmin followed him inside. “Is there anything else you wish for me to know?”

“Yes!” Seungmin nodded with childlike innocence that almost had Hyunjin wondering if the intimidating glare that accompanied the withered flowers were from the same god. “Cerberus says ‘hi!’”

Hyunjin does not answered beyond a nod of his head as he leads Seungmin deeper into the castle, a tentative smile on his face as he decides to entertain his oddly-welcomed guest.

* * *

“The moon is red.” Seungmin noted from where he was seated on the ledge of one of the dining hall windows. His legs were on the inside of the wall but his torso was turned outside. One hand was on the side of the ledge and the other was holding a glass of wine that Hyunjin offered after they’ve had dinner.

The meal was not unlike the ones he has with his mother, a suggestion of the feasts that the gods and goddesses in Olympus regularly have but not quite there yet because there were only two of them to indulge in the food and a whole feast would be ridiculous, no matter how almighty they are.

Hyunjin, who watched Seungmin from his place at the end of the long table, took a sip of his wine before he replied. “It’s a blood moon.”

“A blood moon.” Seungmin repeated in awe. “The sun was red, too. That was a blood sun, then?”

Hyunjin nodded in answer when Seungmin turned away from the night sky to face him instead. “This isn’t what I expected the Underworld to be.”

He’d been in the Underworld for half a day and already he’s questioned most of the things he’s known about the realm. This was not what he expected, but that made him want to stay all the more.

“Tell me, then, what you expected.” Hyunjin mused in a way that made it clear that he knew exactly what Seungmin was going to answer.

Among the things he did not expect, Hyunjin was at the top of the list. He’d known that the God of the Underworld was all kinds of alluring and captivating, but he had not expected himself to be drawn in by hair and eyes as dark as night and a voice so soothing it rivaled the smoothest velvet.

“Just...” Seungmin shrugged nonchalantly. “all the bad souls torturing each other in a ruined version of Earth. And you in the middle of it all, high and mighty.”

Hyunjin was still high and mighty like this, in a version of Earth that lacked the living but not life, but he was far from the cold and unfeeling ruler that stories of him told. He simply had a mysterious air around him that he carried with conviction.

“You see, sweet Seungmin,” Hyunjin stood and walked towards Seungmin, the wine in the glass he held looking as red as his leer. “you think that way because I intend for the Underworld to appear that way. Say, have you given thought to where the good souls go?”

“They move on to the next life.” Seungmin was looking outside again, Hyunjin looking over his shoulder as they trained their eyes on the land beyond the castle gates. “That’s because the Underworld is for punishment.”

“That may be true, but good and evil are not forever.” Hyunjin said. “When a soul learns to be good again, the soul won’t be lost anymore.” he leaned over Seungmin and the younger tried not to shudder at the breath on his nape. “They don’t stay here forever.”

Seungmin wondered if there was ever a time that Hyunjin was not good, but evil. He wondered if he would ever see it again.

“Then why make the Underworld seem like a point of no return?” he turns, then stifles a gasp because how could he forget that Hyunjin was so close when he could still feel his breath on his skin. Seungmin feels his green eyes spark gold at the proximity, and with how close they are, Hyunjin sees it as well.

Hyunjin straightens his back and shrugs, takes a sip of his wine. “Because.”

“Because?” Seungmin echoed as Hyunjin made his way back to the head of the long table.

Seungmin keeps his eyes locked with Hyunjin’s as the latter sits down and Hyunjin tilts the glass of wine until the liquid rounds the walls of the glass. Their eyes stay on each other’s as Hyunjin takes a long, hearty sip of wine before he sets the glass down on the table.

The Hyunjin smirks, and winks, and repeats. “Because.”

* * *

Seungmin has stayed in the Underworld for three nights now, doing nothing but act as Hyunjin’s shadow around the castle, asking questions that on any other occasion or for any other god or goddess, Hyunjin would not answer. He tried to do just that with Seungmin during the first couple of questions, but then the dainty and graceful smile would leave his lips in place of a thin line and that would send a frisson on caution to run down Hyunjin’s spine.

The only times Seungmin would be away from Hyunjin is early in the morning, when the latter was still asleep. Seungmin will find himself at the back of the castle, where an impressive garden was found. At the heart of the garden was a fountain, where he’ll sit and wait until Hyunjin wakes and comes for him.

In only four days, Seungmin had already grown accustomed to the Underworld, or at least the parts that he’s been exposed to, which are limited to Hyunjin’s castle. Seungmin didn’t mind; he liked the castle.

“Isn’t your mother going to worry about you?” Hyunjin asked as he sauntered to the fountain, where the red sun was shining down on Seungmin’s features delicately.

Seungmin hummed with his head tilted up and eyes closed. He still hasn’t figured out the difference between the two skies, or if there really was a different between a yellow sun and white moon to red ones. “I can be gone for weeks wandering meadows and forests. Believe me, she won’t notice my disappearance for at least another month.”

“Is it hard?” Hyunjin asked next. “Is it tiring to be with only her?”

Seungmin’s eyes finally open and he frowns at Hyunjin who’s standing no more than five steps away from Seungmin. At the downturn of Seungmin’s lips, Hyunjin thinks that he’s offended the god with his question, and made to apologize when Seungmin spoke first.

“Why are you standing? So far away, even.” Seungmin asked curiously. “Come sit next to me.”

Hyunjin obliges with a curt nod after a steady beat of silence between them. He sits next to Seungmin on the fountain’s ledge and watches as Seungmin hums in content before once again trying to differentiate the two skies.

“How about you?” Seungmin asked just as Hyunjin concluded that his question will be left unanswered. When Seungmin’s evergreen eyes focused on him, he almost forgot their topic of conversation and was internally grateful when Seungmin elaborated. “Is it hard? Is it tiring being all alone here?”

Hyunjin could make out the golden flecks in Seungmin’s green eyes from how close they were. They were prominent that Hyunjin wondered why he had to be an arm’s length away from the other before he could be able to see.

“Perhaps I’ve grown used to it.” he answered finally.

Seungmin, satisfied with his answer, nodded and directed his gaze to the garden. He sighed. “Me, too. I’m just used to it.”

Hyunjin doesn’t take his eyes off Seungmin after that. He takes in the image of Spring’s Breath and allows himself to bask in his presence. There were flowers in his hair again, plucked from the castle garden by Hyunjin himself. He’d do it every morning if Seungmin woke up one morning and decided not to place flowers in his hair by himself, but that was a thought he was not ready to entertain quite yet.

Hyunjin understood why Seungmin was whisked away and why his mother was intent on keeping it that way. Seungmin is a force to be reckoned with; and more than that, he is a novelty that even the greatest gods can never deserve.

Hyunjin had been feeling the urge to whisk Seungmin away as well; to keep him in the Underworld for as long as time would allow— for as long as Seungmin would allow, because even time would tremble under Seungmin’s emerald glare.

“You’re looking at me like that again.” Seungmin giggled one afternoon a week later as he danced between the flowers of Hyunjin’s garden.

Hyunjin, who watched how Seungmin’s body swayed to imaginary music from where he was seated on the ledge of the fountain, tilted his head in question. “Like what?”

Seungmin spun in a circle before he stopped dancing altogether and he gave a charming grin. “I don’t know, you tell me.”

Hyunjin purses his lips, as red as the sun and moon in the Underworld, in thought. “Like you intrigue me?”

Seungmin exhales in pleasant surprise. He starts to dance again, nothing more than spinning and swaying around the garden but never without enchanting his audience— in this case, the God of the Underworld. “It’s not exactly the correct answer. But I suppose it’s close enough for now. Tell me, how do I pique your interest?”

Seungmin reaches Hyunjin and stops in front of him in a poised bow, almost a curtsy with how delicate he moved. Hyunjin smiles reservedly at the action. “You simply do. From when you demanded you stay here, withering leaves and all.”

“Ah.” Seungmin understands. “It intrigues you that I can call death as easily as you can.”

“You can’t fault me for such. Spring is brimming with life, and you are the heart of it all.”

“But this _is_ life.” Seungmin corrected as he gracefully fell to sit on his knees. He reached for a rose, catching the flower between his fingers seconds before the petals darkened and shriveled and fell to the ground. “As one ends, another begins.”

A new rose blooms in the previous one’s wake, as beautiful as the one before it. Seungmin tilts his head upwards and smiles brightly at Hyunjin. “See?”

Hyunjin does. He sees himself getting reeled into Seungmin farther and farther and he is sure that the point of no return is dangerously close.

“You intrigue me, too.” Seungmin stays kneeled on the pavement, focus everywhere in the garden before he directs it to the castle behind Hyunjin. “You hide behind the masterly-crafted illusion of the Underworld, but the reality of you is as perfect and blinding as the world of the dead truly is.”

“And when I ask why, you say ‘because’.” Seungmin laughed softly as he met Hyunjin’s eyes again.

To prove a point, or maybe to humour the other god, Hyunjin smirked. “Because.”

Seungmin laughed, a sound so enticing that it pushed Hyunjin even closer to the precipice of no return.

It was impossibly easy to fall into Seungmin; yet even still, it was almost embarrassingly quick how Hyunjin is now inundated in the breath of spring.

“Do you even have a use for these?” Seungmin asked with amusement laced in his voice. He’d convinced Hyunjin to tour him around the castle and Hyunjin relented with no fight at all. They’re halfway through the magnificent castle when Hyunjin brings Seungmin to a large room decorated and furnished with diamonds and jewels from floor-to-ceiling.

Seungmin sauntered to the middle of the room and left Hyunjin by the door. He gestured to the room with an expression of exasperated awe. “Look at all this! Do you even need all this? _This_ much?”

“No.” Hyunjin answered with an easy smile. “It’s just pretty to look at. Nice to have, you know?”

Seungmin laughed and looked around the bejeweled room. He touched every crystal his fingers could reach, making comments on the colors and how the light caught this jewel and that. Hyunjin watched with a fond smile that Seungmin was too distracted to see as he listened to the gasps and squeals of the excited god.

“Look,” Seungmin held up a diamond from one of the displays to show Hyunjin. “it’s like my eyes.”

It was a green diamond almost as big as Seungmin’s palm; the lights inside sparkled gold, looking vaguely like the eyes of the God of Spring. Hyunjin smirked and made his way to him. “Your eyes are far more mesmerizing compared to that diamond.”

“Careful, Hyunjin.” Seungmin cooed as he tucked the diamond back in its place. “I might never leave if you make a habit out of showering me with praise.”

“I suppose it can’t be helped.” Hyunjin repeats one of the first sentences he’s ever told Seungmin with a fond leer. “Another addition to my collection of treasures that I don’t need but find pretty to look at.”

Seungmin laughed. “It seems you think of me as a diamond.”

“Maybe so.” Hyunjin replied. “So much more, even.”

Seungmin’s smile turned sheepish at the words. He bit back a laugh and traipsed out of the room. “What else can you show me?”

Hyunjin follows his most prized treasure out of the door.

The sun is about to set when they finish and once again Hyunjin finds himself relenting to Seungmin’s wishes immediately. Hyunjin simply plucks a lavender out of Seungmin’s hair and nods before he leads Seungmin to the entrance of the castle, where earlier Hyunjin claimed was the best spot in the manor to watch the sun set and rise.

“Maybe not the best, but surely my favourite.” he explained as he laid a blanket on the pavement for them to sit on.

“I love it already.” Seungmin mused. He’s found that he loves anything that Hyunjin showed even a modicum of attachment for. He especially loved to see a sort of stronger kind of attachment when it came to him. Seungmin reveled in it.

“I’m sure you do.” Hyunjin chuckled. He sat down and held a hand for Seungmin to take. His fingers curl around Seungmin’s wrist and he gently pulls the god to sit next to him in the middle of the blanket.

“I think I finally know what’s different between this sky and the other one.” Seungmin stated.

“Go on.” Hyunjin prompted as his fingers fiddled with the lavender.

“You’re under this one.” Seungmin simply answered. He looks at Hyunjin, one hand behind him to prop his body up and his other hand on his lap with the lavender between his fingers. His hair was falling over his eyes, both so dark that Seungmin was tempted to spend full days looking into his eyes and running his fingers through his hair.

“Which one do you prefer?” Hyunjin asked and the way his voice bordered on a song made Seungmin breathless. He wondered how much of Hyunjin he can take before he chokes on the fact the right now Hyunjin is not his to take.

Without thought— without the need for— Seungmin answers. “I like where you are.”

As the blood moon rises, Hyunjin tucks the lavender back into the crown of flowers on Seungmin’s head. His palm grazes Seungmin’s temple and he instinctively leans into the touch. They smile at each other before Hyunjin draws his hand back to his lap.

There aren’t any stars in the sky that night. There aren’t any stars in the Underworld at all; just an endless dark void to call a night sky which Seungmin finds beautiful. A myriad of stars does not seem fit to accompany a blood moon.

* * *

“You know what these are, do you?” Hyunjin asked as he watched Seungmin stand in front of the biggest tree in the garden. He had one of the tree’s fruits in his hand, holding it from where it was attached to the tree and not plucking it out of its branch.

Seungmin idly hummed as he examined the fruit. “Mn. I’ve never seen one before.”

Hyunjin stood and slowly traipsed to where Seungmin stood in the heart of the garden. He explained as he walked. “The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Surely, you don’t expect forests to possess such power.”

Seungmin chuckled just as Hyunjin reached him. He stood behind Seungmin, eyed how his palm was secure around the forbidden fruit.

“Be careful, sweet one. Rumour has it that the fruit is a tad sour.” an arm snakes around Seungmin’s torso and his back is pressed against Hyunjin’s chest in a gentle attempt to get him to let go of the fruit. Hyunjin is only mildly surprised when he keeps his grip on the fruit. He whispers into Seungmin’s ear, the tip of his nose brushing the shell of his ear. “That’s dangerous.”

“How so?” Seungmin could feel Hyunjin’s fingers on his hip, his grip almost feather-like but strong enough to coax Seungmin to his knees.

“Knowledge, for a mortal.” Hyunjin says. “Death, for a god.”

“Death?” he echoed. His fingers twitched around the fruit as he continued to eye it curiously.

“Mn.” Hyunjin’s breath tickled Seungmin’s ear, reminding him of how close they were. “And let me tell you, sweet Seungmin, that our kind does not have an Underworld to go to.”

Seungmin barely stopped himself from turning his head in Hyunjin’s direction when he simpered. “Oh. Is that another thing that you’ve kept to yourself?”

“I see no point in preaching that there is no life after death for an immortal.”

Seungmin turns the fruit slightly but hardly enough for its stem to snap. “There’s another thing that you’ve lied about.” he whispered. “I’ve realized some time ago.”

“And what is that, pray tell?”

“Food.” Seungmin answered as Hyunjin’s free hand closed around Seungmin’s. The tips of his fingers touched the fruit where Seungmin’s own fingers couldn’t reach. He looked at their hands around the forbidden fruit, pleasantly tempted to prop his chin on Seungmin’s shoulder instead of simply hovering above it. Seungmin’s eyes gleamed at the sight of their hands around the same fruit. “It must not be fact that eating in the Underworld prohibits you from ever leaving. You’ve prepared meal after meal for me since my arrival.”

It was common knowledge that eating or drinking even the smallest of anything instantaneously bounds someone to the realm. Seungmin has realized long ago that it was false, as he and Hyunjin shared a bowl of dewberries as Hyunjin once again cursed the day that Seungmin would leave the Underworld and come back to Olympus.

Hyunjin wouldn’t serve Seungmin bread and wine if it bounded him to the Underworld. He most certainly will not mull over Seungmin leaving if he knew that it wasn’t possible as soon as he consumed anything.

He laughed into Seungmin’s ear, the sound nothing short of hypnotizing. “I was wondering when you would catch on with that.”

“So, what’s the story behind that?”

Hyunjin laughed again and uncurled Seungmin’s hand from the fruit whilst lacing their fingers together. Seungmin let Hyunjin bring their hands to his waist, Seungmin now fully trapped in Hyunjin’s embrace. “And don’t say ‘because’ again, there’s only so much that you can get away with when you use that.”

“It simply saves me the obligation of hosting festivities. Attending is dreadful enough, you know?” he explains as he lifts their joint fingers over Seungmin’s head to spin him around and carefully push his back against the tree trunk.

Seungmin chuckled in understanding. “Those parties must be too tedious for you.”

“Very much so.”

“That’s smart.” Seungmin mooned as his free hand reached for the same fruit again. It hung an inch higher next to Hyunjin’s head, and if Seungmin felt a little more playful, he’d have placed his hand on Hyunjin’s shoulder instead.

Hyunjin looked at Seungmin intently. He couldn’t decipher the expression on Seungmin’s face as he examined the fruit. There was still the initial curiosity in his features, but now there was something akin to a challenge that made Hyunjin feel like his heart was being strangled.

“It’s not another one of my myths.” he tells him as he leans closer. “One bite and you’re gone.”

“I know.” Seungmin said as he let go of the fruit. The moment his fingers fall onto Hyunjin’s shoulder, the fruit starts to rot, slowly until it breaks off its stem and continues to wilt next to Hyunjin’s feet.

He could see the genuine fear in Hyunjin’s eyes, but he almost missed it because the desperation was overpowering; silently begging Seungmin not to get any ideas, that he could play around as much as his heart desired as long as he’d never let his curiosity get the best of him and decide to take a bite out of the forbidden fruit. If Seungmin ever takes a bite out of it, Hyunjin would follow without hesitation.

Seungmin looks at Hyunjin sincerely. “I wouldn’t even try.”

* * *

Hyunjin and Seungmin found that they enjoyed full days with each other as company; mornings in the garden, afternoons anywhere inside the castle, sunsets at the front of the castle, and evenings ending with Hyunjin walking Seungmin to the bedchambers next to his own as an unspoken promise that the following day will be spent in a similar manner.

“Don’t you miss the world above?” Hyunjin asked one morning as he once again watched from his place at the fountain as Seungmin spin and twirled along the large perimeter of his garden with light toes.

“Why do you ask?” Seungmin questioned yet his dance doesn’t falter.

“You’ve been here nigh three weeks.” he said, dark eyes trained on Seungmin’s every move, however miniscule. “I’m easing into the impression that you have no plans of leaving at all.”

Seungmin hummed, making it so the comment was a suggestion more than anything. “That sounds nice. Don’t you think so?”

“It does.” Hyunjin mused. “But I also think that I should know when you’re going to leave. And if it’s sooner than I think.”

Seungmin spins once and stops in front of Hyunjin. “How soon is that, then?”

Seungmin is in front of Hyunjin now; he’s close enough that Hyunjin could hold his hand out for the other to take. Hyunjin doesn’t answer until he’s guided Seungmin to sit next to him and he’s touching the flowers in his hair. “Some time this eternity, if I’m being honest.”

Seungmin tittered, eyes lowered to where Hyunjin’s hands were now on his lap. The touch of Hyunjin’s thumbs on the dorsums of his hands was comforting. “We’ll have to find a way to make that happen, then, because at the moment we’re running on borrowed time.”

“Your mother wouldn’t allow you to spend eternities here, I suppose.”

“Oh, but she’s never been the boss of me.” Seungmin sighed, features heavily laced with amusement and Hyunjin is once again reeled even deeper. He could see the resolve in Seungmin’s features; it was the knowledge that he was capable of going against anyone’s wishes— his mother’s included— and the intention to do exactly that when the need arises.

And once again, Hyunjin is in awe. Seungmin is everything that the whispers about the God of Spring said he was, but he was still so much more than that.

Hyunjin craved Seungmin, to say the least. He craved the whispers that spoke of him as well as the words Seungmin whispered into his ear himself. It may be an understatement to say that Hyunjin dreaded the thought of Seungmin going back up to Olympus.

He was dreading the inevitable.

“I never took you for a troublemaker.” he jested.

Seungmin winked. “You’re not the only one who isn’t how he seems.”

“So it is.”

“Is there any way we can stay like this forever?” Seungmin asked late in the afternoon as he watched beyond the castle gates. Two glasses of wine stood at the ledge of the balcony they were standing on and a bottle of wine on the table inside the room. Seungmin decided that he wanted to watch the souls of the Underworld today and Hyunjin obediently opened the balcony door of the bedchambers that Seungmin is currently occupying.

“Like what?” the greater god asked.

“Like this,” Seungmin repeated with a dreamy sigh. “I like it just like this. In this world, watching the lost souls find their way. With you, most of all.”

Hyunjin finds himself speechless and with the strength to do nothing aside from stare at Seungmin’s side profile as the shorter gracefully took his glass of wine between three fingers and tipped his head back for a hearty sip. He did nothing but watch Seungmin place his glass back on the ledge with a poised click.

“You’re looking at me like that again.” Seungmin didn’t look up at Hyunjin at all, only looked at his glass of wine then back out to the Underworld. There was no way for him to see how Hyunjin was looking at him but he spoke with a gentle finality, like he was absolutely positive that the look he was receiving was the look he was referring to— like Hyunjin was simply incapable of looking at him in any other way and that he was incapable of looking at anything else the way he looks at Seungmin.

“Like what?” Hyunjin asked again, voice low.

“How do you think?” Seungmin asked with a leer. His attention is still beyond the castle gates and he watched how the lost souls wandered about. Hyunjin has never, not once, felt like the souls he watched over, but now he did; with how Seungmin’s question made him scavenge his entire being and Seungmin’s for the answer.

This has been an exchange between the two every other day. Hyunjin always answered differently— ‘like you intrigue me’, ‘like you’re the only one worth looking at’, ‘like even the gods can’t sculpt a beauty like you’, ‘like you hold the stars that the blood moon can’t have’— but Seungmin is yet to answer something greater than a flattered hum.

Hyunjin thought deeply, still unsure of the answer Seungmin is waiting for.

“Like I want you all to myself.”

And there it is: the flattered hum followed by the amused laugh that Hyunjin absolutely adored. It was addictive, more so that a siren’s song.

Seungmin finally turned to face him, irises of green and gold dancing with mirth around pupils dark with affection. He exhaled, somehow sounding exasperatedly endeared. “Do you really not know how you look at me, Hyunjin?”

No soul, mortal or immortal, could live after calling Hyunjin by his name so carelessly, yet here Hyunjin was, enamored at the way his name rolled off Seungmin’s tongue like he was destined to chant it out until the end of time.

Seungmin couldn’t believe that Hyunjin didn’t know. Hyunjin didn’t know how the way he looked at Seungmin made him feel every inch of the god he is; made him feel a different kind of immortal and powerful that he’s never felt before— and Hyunjin didn’t even know.

“If I knew, sweet Seungmin,” he chuckled. “then I would have stopped answering wrong by now.”

To say that his answers are wrong are an insult to Hyunjin, for he believes in all his answers, knows that there is only truth in his statements and no room for verbiage.

“You’ve never given a wrong answer, though.” Seungmin mooned and turned back to the view beyond the castle walls. “It just so happened that your answers weren’t completely correct, either.”

“Then tell me,” Hyunjin shifted until he was completely faced away from the Underworld and had his back propped against the railing. “the look I give you, what is it?”

Silence.

Seungmin contemplates between a sarcastic remark and the truth. It’s not the he’s unconfident with the second option, he simply was unsure of which of the two would tug at Hyunjin’s resolve a little stronger.

“The look of love.”

There’s another silence.

Seungmin keeps his gaze beyond the castle walls; until pale fingers curl around his chin and turn his face to the side. Green and gold meets sinfully dark and the air around them turns stifled.

Then Hyunjin smirks, endeared and perplexed and a touch challenging. “Look of _love_. You think I’m capable of such?”

How precious.

Seungmin’s smirk is smaller than Hyunjin’s but no less confident. “I’ve spend enough time with Aphrodite to know what love looks like.

Aphrodite is one of Seungmin’s closest acquaintances— the gods can go back and forth between friends and enemies rather quick— and her eyes always shone with the purest form of love, features always soft with fondness. It is a permanent expression on her face regardless of how indifferent or irritated or infuriated she was really feeling.

Hyunjin scoffed whilst he drew closer. “Still. It’s bold of you to assume that such ideologies are possible with me.”

“I’m capable of this, aren’t I?” Seungmin drawls lowly. From the corner of Hyunjin’s eye, he can see the potted plant by the curtained archway to the balcony slowly shrivel into nothing more than wilted leaves on and around the ceramic pot. Hyunjin fails to pay closer attention to it when the phantom smirk on Seungmin’s lips grows by a modicum. “What’s to say you can’t love?” Seungmin’s lashes flutter as he speaks, almost as if he is teasing Hyunjin.

He surges forward and their noses graze against one another’s and Seungmin exhales a breathy giggle at the tentative contact. Hyunjin watches as the other god’s eyelashes flutter on half-lidded eyes. He feels winded as a result of their proximity; the red tint from the afternoon sun made Seungmin glow almost sinfully; he looks like he’s waiting for Hyunjin to ravish him.

Hyunjin wanted to. Almost painfully so.

Seungmin hummed, questioning, and Hyunjin realized that Seungmin’s eyes were now fully closed. “Am I wrong, Hyunjin?”

Hyunjin continues to gaze at him, curled fingers around the other’s chin pulling him closer until their noses were fully touching instead of simply grazing. Their breaths mingle between them and Hyunjin is consumed with the concept of breathing Seungmin in.

“Hyunjin,” Seungmin murmured with a hint of jest. “what are you planning to do?”

Seungmin’s eyes open halfway, golden flecks shining with promise and craving. The minute smirk is now a small comforting smile that has Hyunjin’s head spinning.

It prodded at Hyunjin’s resolve— tore it to pieces, destroyed beyond recognition— to see how innocent Seungmin looked right now when mere moments ago he looked like temptation.

“Heavens, Seungmin,” Hyunjin growls lowly when he removes his hand from Seungmin’s chin. Before Seungmin can question him, he lifts the god up to sit on the balcony ledge, careful of their wine glasses, and keeps his hands on Seungmin’s knees as support and stands between them, dark eyes boring into sparkling green. “you have no idea what you do to me.”

Levity attempts to leave Seungmin’s system in the form of an airy laugh as his arms circle loosely around Hyunjin’s neck to further keep him in place. “I might have a decent idea.”

The hands on his knees squeeze tenderly and Hyunjin smirks. “Sweet, sweet Seungmin, I wonder how much it takes to ruin you before repair.”

Seungmin pulls him closer as his voice dips. “It only takes you.”

Hyunjin growls again, his composure withered like the wilted leaves on the marble floor of the balcony. He closes the gap between them and catches Seungmin’s cherry-red lips in a bruising kiss. Seungmin falters and holds on to Hyunjin’s shoulders tightly whilst he tilts his head until their lips slotted together perfectly.

The kiss tastes like what Seungmin suspects the forbidden fruit to taste like. It tastes tart with an underlying sweetness— Seungmin knows he’ll crave it. It’s a kiss of death: forbidden but inevitable.

Seungmin winced when Hyunjin’s teeth nipped at his lip harshly. Hyunjin licked the pain away before he spoke against Seungmin’s mouth, the syllable feather-light against their lips and had Seungmin’s knees shaking. “What are you planning to do?” he repeated Seungmin’s earlier question. “Now that _you’ve_ ruined _me_.”

Seungmin shuddered at the question. He fastened one of his legs around Hyunjin’s torso and brings him closer. He claims Hyunjin’s lips again, kissing the god’s full lips with strong interest. Hyunjin lets him. He sighs against Seungmin’s eager lips, hands moving from his knees to his hips, holding him with an overpowering sense of security.

“Answer me.” Hyunjin pressed between kisses. He clutched Seungmin’s hips, not enough to hurt, only to catch his attention.

Seungmin melts into Hyunjin, face falling on Hyunjin’s shoulder and breathless from Hyunjin’s kisses. “By the gods, Hyunjin, you can do with me as you please.”

That was all he needed to hear before his lips latch onto the smooth skin of Seungmin’s porcelain neck. Seungmin shudders again and moans into Hyunjin’s shoulder as his neck is painted with reds, blues, and purples. He gasps when Hyunjin’s fingers knead circles into his hips and waist with the utmost tenderness that seeps past the robes he’s wearing.

Seungmin’s nails dug sharply into Hyunjin’s clothed shoulders. He could feel his head feel lighter with every nibble and lick Hyunjin blessed him with. It felt like poison was entering his system and slowly taking over all of his senses. If he was being even a smidge honest, he’d gulp down the deadliest of poisons if it was served to him as attractively as Hyunjin was.

Hyunjin kisses him again and Seungmin smiles into the kiss. It’s softer this time, not the battering kiss that made Seungmin lose breath; this one was a light kiss that made Seungmin’s toes curl with how much Hyunjin’s lips tickled his. It’s soft and slow and the way their tongues danced together made Seungmin feel like he’s being adored to his very core.

To be venerated by the God of the Underworld is nothing short of exhilarating.

* * *

“How is it that you are here with me right now?” Hyunjin whispered against Seungmin’s wrist as they laid in bed one afternoon. He’s propped up on his elbow as he trailed kisses from Seungmin’s shoulder up to his fingers, eyes never leaving the sparkling green of the god’s. He kisses Seungmin’s knuckles, heart full when Seungmin giggles softly.

Hyunjin thought himself worthy of accolades and gifts and treasures, but never had he thought that he was ever worthy of having Spring’s Breath in his bed, hidden away from the world and only for him to ravish and adore and love with his entire being.

“Because I want to be here.” Seungmin answers as he laces his fingers with Hyunjin’s. “I want to be under the same sky you are.”

Hyunjin tilts their hands to kiss the back of Seungmin’s lovingly and now it’s Seungmin’s turn to have a full heart. “I want to be your greatest possession.”

“And my most precious treasure you are.” Hyunjin murmurs between kisses on Seungmin’s hand.

Seungmin once again feels breathless; the poison in his system is fueled by Hyunjin’s kisses and smiles and whispers and Seungmin feels the ichor in his veins rush to every part of his body until the gold colour turns as dark as Hyunjin’s eyes. There is no poison in Hyunjin’s eyes, only love, and only for Seungmin.

“And I promise you this, my sweet Seungmin,” Hyunjin leans over Seungmin to speak against his lips this time, and Seungmin exhales a shaky breath when he feels Hyunjin’s words on his own mouth. “that all hell will break loose if anyone dare take you away from me.”

Seungmin kisses him sweetly. “No one will take me away from you.” he promises under his breath. “If anyone dare try, then spring will die for all eternity.”

And if Spring fails to breathe, Hyunjin sees no point in living at all.

“Even if it was your mother?” Hyunjin asks. He knows the answer to this but still a part of him fears that Seungmin will one day not be his anymore, and he will once again be his mother’s. It’s not Hyunjin who should fear this, but the rest of the world, because neither of them would allow not being each other’s.

Seungmin laughs, opens his eyes to look Hyunjin in the eye, and he lifts his free hand to card his fingers through Hyunjin’s dark hair. “Especially if it was my mother.”

Hyunjin smiles, the type of smile that made Seungmin pull him down and kiss him until they both were breathless.

“I love you.” Seungmin murmurs between kisses.

Hyunjin smiles, pulls away and kisses Seungmin’s cheek before burying his face in the crook of his neck. “Say it again.”

“I love you.” Seungmin murmurs into Hyunjin’s hair.

“One more time.” he could live until the end of time only hearing Seungmin’s voice and only hearing him say that he loves him.

Gladly. “I love you.”

Hyunjin kisses Seungmin’s neck and nuzzles deeper into him. “I love you.” he kisses up Seungmin’s jaw, back to his lips where Seungmin kisses him deeply once again.

* * *

It doesn’t take long after that before Demeter comes for Seungmin. The goddess, after scouring all of Olympus and Earth looking for her precious son, does to the Underworld with Zeus; more to prove to herself that her son was _not_ in the realm of the dead.

Seungmin has been gone for three months, his mother has been searching for him for two, and Hyunjin has been patronizing him with like he himself was not a god for one and a half.

Every whisper, every touch, every bite, every kiss made Seungmin more breathless than the last. Hyunjin handled him carefully, as if Seungmin would break; and firmly, because he knew what Seungmin was capable of; and most of all, Seungmin was treated and pampered and ravished like he was Hyunjin’s greatest treasure— he is, and Hyunjin will whisper these praises in Seungmin’s ear for as long as he ruled over the dead and millennials after.

“Cozy.” Seungmin whined under his breath after he pulled Hyunjin back next to him on the bed. His eyes are still closed, barely stirring awake when he felt Hyunjin shift and sit up to get out of bed. He squeezes his face between Hyunjin’s neck and shoulder, not needing to open his eyes to have an idea of the current time. “It’s midnight, Hyunjin.”

“There’s someone outside, Seungmin.” Hyunjin murmured as he trailed kisses over the top of Seungmin’s head. “I have to see to it.”

“Warm.” he says in reply.

Hyunjin moves until Seungmin’s head is on the pillow. He’s ready to whine and open his eyes but only lets out a breathy moan when butterfly kisses start going down the side of his head. When Hyunjin speaks between kisses to his skin, Seungmin almost croons. “I’ll see who dare come in the middle of the night, and come back to you soon.”

Hyunjin presses his lips against Seungmin’s as a last kiss, lingering on the honey and tart taste of the kiss before letting go of the half-asleep god and making his way out.

Seungmin is slowly swayed back to sleep by the ghost of Hyunjin’s lips and he’s almost convinced that the past handful of minutes was nothing more than a dream and Hyunjin is still asleep next to him, cozy and warm.

Almost. A crack of thunder disrupts the ever-peaceful blood moon and Seungmin is jolted awake. He sits up on Hyunjin’s bed, Hyunjin’s sheets draped over his bare shoulders and pooling over on where Hyunjin should be asleep.

What Zeus wanted in the middle of the night, Seungmin did not know.

And then he does, when he wraps the blankets around him as he trudges to the balcony’s archway. He draws the curtain just enough to peak outside before he retracts his hand with a surprised gasp, throws off the blankets and instead drapes Hyunjin’s black ropes over himself as he rushes down the steps and to the entrance of the castle, where Hyunjin stands opposite his brother and Seungmin’s mother. Seungmin stops running when he’s two feet behind Hyunjin, locking eyes with his mother.

Demeter visibly relaxes when she sees him. “Seungmin, thank the gods.”

Seungmin does not realize how long it has been since he last saw his mother. He missed her dearly, but the frown on her lips had Seungmin worried that she wasn’t pleased to see him in the Underworld. There was a small voice on the back of Seungmin’s mind, telling him to hide back in the castle and wait for Hyunjin to come back and slip next to him in bed.

“Seungmin, sweetie,” Hyunjin called with his back still turned to him. There was hostility in his voice, directed at Zeus and Demeter for whatever it is Seungmin interrupted but still there is the underlying affection when he says his name. “would you be a dear and tell these two trespassers that I most certainly am not keeping you here against your will?”

“He would never.” Seungmin said immediately. A crease forms between his brows at the absurdity of the accusation. How could his mother accuse Hyunjin of such a thing?

Demeter’s eyes widen by a modicum at her son’s answer. “Seungmin?”

“I came here on my own.” Seungmin stated firmly whilst he walked the distance between him and Hyunjin, a hand curling around the greater god’s upper arm almost instinctively. “I practically forced Hyunjin to let me stay.”

Demeter reached out and took Seungmin’s free hand in her’s. “Seungmin, what are you doing here? Do you know how worried I was looking for you?”

Hyunjin looked at Seungmin for the first time since he arrived, his steel gaze melted instantaneously whilst Seungmin calmly answered. “I’m sorry if I worried you but... I like here a lot. I don’t want to leave.”

“What do you mean by that?” she asked with an air of dread, worry, and offence.

“It means,” Seungmin said through slightly gritted teeth. “that I want to stay with Hyunjin.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Yes, I do.” Seungmin frowned, nails digging into the flesh of Hyunjin’s arm but barely enough to hurt.

“Seungmin, you can’t stay here.” Zeus interjected.

Seungmin’s eyes narrowed at him. “You don’t tell me what to do.”

“Sweetie, he kind of does.” Hyunjin brought his face close to whisper and his free hand rose to Seungmin’s hand on his arm to squeeze it shortly. He knew enough about Seungmin now to know that he does not care that Zeus is their leader, he won’t let him get in the way of what he wants. Hyunjin reveled in the fact that only he had power over Seungmin.

Seungmin’s eyes stayed narrowed at Zeus— the God of gods— whilst his lips jutted out slightly and Hyunjin chuckled at the pout before pulling away.

Demeter huffed and with the hand she was still holding, tugs Seungmin to her side, and consequently, away from Hyunjin.

“Seungmin, you’re not thinking clearly.” she concluded. “You don’t want to stay here.”

“Yes, I am, and yes, I do.” he threw her hand off him and stepped backward, a sign Hyunjin took as a request (or demand, he was unsure) for him to touch him, so Hyunjin reached out and held Seungmin on either arm to lead him back to him side.

Seungmin looked genuinely confused and taken aback that his mother was not-so subtly dissuading him from his wishes. His _mother_ , who never let him do anything he didn’t want to, and by extension, let him do whatever he wanted.

“It’s late.” Hyunjin interjected with a pointed look at Zeus. “I’d fault you both for barging in at the middle of the night, but I’ll let it pass if you leave now.”

“Seungmin, let’s go home.” there was a hopeful pitch in her voice that Seungmin didn’t want to crush but had to.

“I am home.”

Seungmin slipped his fingers between Hyunjin’s as defeat washed over Demeter’s features. Hyunjin squeezed his hand comfortingly, a stark contrast to the cold expression on his face that was directed at their surprise visitors.

Seungmin does not know how long they stand at the castle gates until Zeus relents from Hyunjin’s gaze and forces Demeter to do the same with Seungmin. They leave, but not without the unspoken declaration that they will return come morning.

They’re long gone by the time Hyunjin steps away from Seungmin’s side to stand in front of him and take his other hand. Seungmin sighs with his head lowered and sees as well as feels Hyunjin’s thumbs drawing shapes on the backs of his hands.

“Seungmin.” he says, the same gentle voice he often uses to say his name. A spate of warmth floods Seungmin’s insides but he refuses to take his eyes off their hands. Hyunjin sighs at Seungmin’s hesitance. “Look at me, my sweet.”

When Seungmin does look up, Hyunjin presses their foreheads together with his eyes closed. Seungmin is momentarily distracted by the flutter of his eyelashes that he almost doesn’t hear the words being whispered to him. “Thank you for not leaving.”

Perhaps Seungmin truly does not know what he wants; that the truth is Hyunjin’s kiss of death is keeping him where he is against his will without him knowing and he’s far too powerless to even attempt to fight against the spell he’s under. He’s hypnotized and addicted all the same, so much so that how much he craves Hyunjin is almost unnatural.

“I want to stay with you.” when he says these words and sees the quirks on the corners of Hyunjin’s lips, Seungmin’s heart soars at the confirmation that he indeed knows what he is doing and most certainly know what he wants.

Hyunjin kisses him, light and gentle and Seungmin _knows_ that he’d rather die than to not be kissed like this again. Hyunjin kisses him with the kind of love Seungmin kisses him with and he’d be out of his mind to walk away from it.

“Don’t leave me, okay?” Hyunjin sighs against Seungmin’s lips and their foreheads are once again pressed together.

Seungmin can barely open his eyes with how close their lips were still. He catches Hyunjin’s upper lip for half a second before he exhales. “I won’t. I promise.”

Hands find themselves on Seungmin’s lower back and pushes him closer to Hyunjin. His eyes fly open as he giggles into Hyunjin’s mouth at their closer proximity.

Hyunjin’s lips move to Seungmin’s cheek. “You look tantalizing in black, by the way.”

Seungmin laughs again, remembering that he grabbed the first set of robes he could in his haste to get to his mother. Seungmin usually wore white, Hyunjin having Charon fill a closet with robes for Seungmin three days after he first arrived to the Underworld. Seungmin would wear Hyunjin’s black robes when he felt a little more playful that normal, but the robes would be taken off him before he could even get comfortable in them.

How no one has found Seungmin until now was beyond both gods.

Seungmin simply hummed in reply. He let Hyunjin place slow kisses all over his cheeks and across his nose. He’d let out an airy laugh whenever Hyunjin’s tongue licked at his skin, and he’d squirm away only to be pressed back against Hyunjin.

“Let’s get you back to bed.” Hyunjin declared after a while and Seungmin’s eyes had started to droop rather than flutter. He took Seungmin’s hands and moved them from his chest to around his neck. Seungmin let out a squeal when one of Hyunjin’s arms latched around the back of his knees and his feet are lifted off the ground.

Hyunjin placed a last kiss on Seungmin’s forehead before walking back inside the castle, Seungmin asleep in his arms.

They’ll deal with everything else later.

* * *

To neither of their surprises, Demeter and Zeus come back whilst the blood sun found its place in the sky. Seungmin’s display of fluttering his eyelashes was enough for Hyunjin to allow the two immortals inside and to the castle gardens. Hyunjin would have preferred that they continue their confrontation at the castle gates but Seungmin would rather stay in the garden.

Hyunjin has seen enough to know that if batting eyelashes don’t work then he’d feel a tremor down his spine once he’s facing one of Seungmin’s variety of glares.

“Mother, I really don’t want to leave.” Seungmin said from where he’s sat next to Hyunjin on the fountain ledge with their hands clasped atop Hyunjin’s thigh. Demeter and Zeus stood opposite them. “I like it here.”

“Seungmin, you’re not supposed to be in the realm of the dead.” Zeus said.

His brow twitched when he repeated more sternly. “I like it here.”

“You’re not dead, Seungmin, or a God of Death.” Demeter reasoned out.

“What do you mean?” Seungmin asked, voice laced with confusion and innocence. Hyunjin is the only one who notices the wilting of the flowers near the fountain. “If I control life, that means I control death, too.” he continued and the two finally take notice of the dying peonies once they circle the fountain and wilt around Seungmin’s and Hyunjin’s feet and the withering stops. “So why can’t I stay here?”

“Why don’t you want to come back to Olympus?” Demeter asked. Her tone was between defeated and hostile and Hyunjin almost immediately made the connection between her and Seungmin. “Do you not want to see me anymore?”

“Mother,” Seungmin’s eyes soften as the dying peonies wither completely to make way for a new batch of flowers. “of course I still want to see you, but I simply can’t leave myself to leave this world.” Seungmin blinks as his green eyes zero in on Hyunjin, now shining with a breathtaking gold. “And I’m Hyunjin will let me visit sometimes.”

“Any time you want, my sweet.” Hyunjin promised before he raised Seungmin’s hand and kissed his knuckles tenderly.

Seungmin smiles in response. He knows that Hyunjin will never go back on his word.

“I suppose this can be arranged.” Zeus concluded, only to be met with Demeter’s stern reply.

“No. I can’t accept this.”

“For why, mother?”

“Your place is not in the Underworld.”

Seungmin frowned deeply and clutched Hyunjin’s hand. “My place is with Hyunjin, whether the tides arranged for it or not.”

Seungmin never thought he’d ever have to choose between his mother and someone else; but now that he is, he’s almost baffled at how easy it is not to choose Demeter.

But Seungmin always has wanted more. He wanted Hyunjin, more than frolicking fields and wandering meadows. He wanted Hyunjin more than he wanted Spring to come, when he was at his prime; because with Hyunjin he was brighter and more unstoppable than his best springs have ever made him.

Seungmin wants more.

Hyunjin is his more.

But that doesn’t mean that he’s eager to be separated from his mother. He knows he’s not saying goodbye to her, and that’s another reason he’s adamant about staying in the Underworld with Hyunjin.

“Demeter, I believe that it is best to grant Seungmin’s wishes.” Hyunjin spoke lowly, as if he was hesitant to speak at all, because Zeus would hear as well. He knew that Demeter understood what he meant: stop before Seungmin gets angry.

Demeter deflated for a moment before a stern and motherly expression washed over her features. “Forgive me, King of the Underworld, but you can’t possibly imply that you plan to keep him here for all eternity _just_ because he wants to. That’s way too out of your character.”

“Demeter, I believe this is something both of them desire.” Zeus said as he studied Hyunjin; his brother, who was capable of making the world believe what he wanted it to when it came to the Underworld, looked just about ready to turn his make-believe Hell into a larger than life Heaven for the God of Spring.

But Seungmin didn’t want Heaven or Hell or both. He wanted the Underworld how he found it, with souls looking for their way back and Hyunjin in the heart of it all, exactly how it is now. He wanted Hyunjin, feared by so, so many but Seungmin can never tremble under Hyunjin’s gaze as much as he trembled under Hyunjin’s touch, delicate with an unbelievable amount of love.

Seungmin’s eyes land on the magnificent tree at the center of the garden, one he’s danced around as Hyunjin watched his every move and one he’s stood in front of in awe and curiosity, fingers enveloped around one of its powerful fruits.

“Mother,” his eyes shook as he directed them away from what was behind Zeus and Demeter. “I don’t understand why you won’t allow me to stay.”

“Because I’ll worry about you, my child.” Demeter’s words were laced with sincerity as she answered the question with conviction. “And I’m worrying about you right now. You’ve never been away from home but here you are, refusing to come back.”

“Hyunjin takes care of me well.” a small smile graced Seungmin’s lips as he recalled the mornings Hyunjin joined Seungmin’s dancing in the garden, the afternoons the explored the castle, and the evenings he’s showered with kisses that taste of love and pomegranates.

The confidence Seungmin has in saying Hyunjin’s name doesn’t fail to send a spate of fear over Demeter’s body. Even the King of the Underworld’s own brother and God of gods cannot say his name without so much as a second thought on whether or not the name will bring him misfortune, yet here her son was, voice not once cracking and full of devotion.

“But for how long?”

“For all eternity.” Hyunjin answered with a type of conviction that left even Zeus in awe. “So long as Seungmin allows me.”

Seungmin looked at Hyunjin with glazed eyes, feeling reluctant with what he was about to do. He feared bringing pain to Hyunjin but he knew that there is little that can change his mother’s mind.

“Hyunjin...” he whispered as he clutched onto Hyunjin’s hand tighter.

Hyunjin smiled at him, and Seungmin knew he had to do this. He had to, if he was ever going to get Demeter to relent.

“Your place isn’t here in the Underworld, my child.” she insisted.

Just one bite.

“My place is with Hyunjin.” Seungmin let go of Hyunjin’s hand and stood to his feet. He dared not glance at the look of confusion on the face of his love as he walked past Zeus and made his way to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. “It’s with him or no place at all.”

Hyunjin catches on with stomache-curdling haste when in one swift motion, Seungmin plucks a fruit from the tree. He bolts to his feet and sprints to Seungmin’s side, Zeus’s and Demeter’s cries lost to his ears.

“Seungmin!”

“No!”

When Hyunjin reaches Seungmin, he can’t do anything else but throw his arms around him. Seungmin has already taken a bite; there’s nothing Hyunjin can do now. His knees buckle and he falls to the ground in a squat, bringing Seungmin down with him.

Demeter’s hands are shaking when they fly to her face in shock, her pristine face pale and dread washing over her features at her son taking a bite of the most dangerous fruit that ever rose from the soil.

With one of his arms around his lower back and the other cradling the back of his head and neck, Seungmin can feel Hyunjin trembling around him. His breath hitches when Hyunjin speaks in broken syllables. “My s-sweet Seungmin, w-why would you...”

Hyunjin feels a myriad of emotions ranging from paralyzing sadness to staggering anger coursing through his veins and traces of tears framing his eyes, waiting for Seungmin’s body to fall limp before they make their way down his cheeks.

“Shh...” Seungmin tried to soothe Hyunjin with a gentle kiss between the god’s neck and shoulder, careful not to move inside Hyunjin’s tight embrace. “don’t worry, my love.”

The fruit falls from Seungmin’s fingers as he brings his arms to wrap around Hyunjin and pull him closer. Another kiss, this time on his jaw, tells Hyunjin that something is amiss.

The forbidden fruit did not smell like pomegranates.

His breath is once again knocked out from him when he sees the fallen fruit next to them; but this time in relief and awe instead of the absolute fear from seconds ago. Seungmin starts to giggle, taking his head from where it was on Hyunjin’s shoulder to show him— as well as Demeter and Zeus who stood frozen at Seungmin’s stunt— the line of pomegranate juice trickling from the corner of his mouth down to his chin.

“Don’t do that again. Ever.” Hyunjin both pleaded and ordered as he slowly gave small licks from Seungmin’s chin to the side of his lips to clean his face of the pomegranate juice. “I _forbid_ you from ever touching the tree again.”

There is little that Hyunjin will stop Seungmin from doing, and touching the Tree of Knowledge is now high on that short list. The fear of losing Seungmin had multiplied tenfold from the distance between the fountain and the tree and Hyunjin knows that he would tear the world apart if Seungmin really had taken a bite out of the forbidden fruit.

Hyunjin sniffles and Seungmin embraces him tighter. He places his chin on Hyunjin’s shoulder and lets the god’s lips latch on to a spot on his neck and pepper it with weak butterfly kisses whilst he cast a challenging look to his mother and the King of Gods. “I won’t,” he promises. “as long as I get to stay with you.”

“Seungmin...” Demeter started hesitantly. How Seungmin had managed to grow a pomegranate on the Tree of Knowledge was beyond her. Her son was sneaky as he was stubborn, but never had he put his own life on the line like he had now.

“I can go ahead and take a bite out the real thing to get this over with.” Seungmin threatens and Hyunjin whimpers low enough for only Seungmin and him to hear before he bites down on Seungmin’s neck. Seungmin sucks in a breath when he feels the subtle sting of Hyunjin’s teeth.

Seungmin hates himself for hurting Hyunjin and scaring him half to tears, but he has no other choice but to scare his mother as well to show her that this was not up for debate.

“I mean it, mother.” he stated firmly and slowly. “I’d rather be nowhere than anywhere without Hyunjin.”

Stilted silence permeates in the air of the garden. Hyunjin has stopped kissing Seungmin’s neck now, having left a scarlet mark on his neck that would soon go from blood moon red to dark violet in a handful of minutes. He’s started to stroke Seungmin’s hair, humming lowly only for his love to hear.

Seungmin doesn’t back down from his mother’s gaze, neither of them willing to simply withdraw and let the other have their way. Seungmin’s eyes narrow and Demeter’s twitch; this is a losing battle for her, she knows.

He was her pride and joy, after all. At the end of the day, she wanted what he did, even if it meant they had to be separated.

A sigh falls from Demeter’s full lips. “Promise me you’ll visit often?”

“Of course, mother.” Seungmin answered at once. He and Hyunjin let go of each other as tears brim on the corners of Seungmin’s eyes. He makes his way to Demeter and embraces her tightly. “How do you expect me to forget about you?”

“I’ll miss you, my child.”

“I’ll miss you, too.” Seungmin sighed as Demeter broke the hug. He smiled at her. “But I’ll be damned to part from my love.”

Demeter turned to Hyunjin, who stood next to Seungmin and fastened an arm around his waist as soon as Seungmin’s arms weren’t around her. Her lips quirked into a small and tentative smile.

“I believe congratulations are in order, then.”

Seungmin placed a hand on Hyunjin’s shoulder, prompting the latter to tug him closer. He smiled at Hyunjin. “Are they?”

Hyunjin kissed Seungmin’s hair with a nod. He turned to Zeus after. “At the soonest possible time, no doubt.”

So a week later, Mount Olympus celebrated the matrimony of the God of the Underworld and the God of Spring. A shock to more than a dozen handfuls, but the marriage was far from unwelcomed once the Olympians saw the two together.

“Welcome home, my love.” Hyunjin told Seungmin when they got back to the Underworld. The festivities of the day have drained them both but now that they were alone and in the isolation of their castle, they could take a breath.

Seungmin tittered and let Hyunjin pull him closer. He wrapped his arms around Hyunjin’s neck when he felt his husband hook an arm around his knees to carry him. The sound of Hyunjin’s feet on the castle floor is rhythmic and relaxing, almost lulling Seungmin to sleep.

“I love you.” Seungmin sighed as he rested his head on Hyunjin’s shoulder.

“And I, you.” Hyunjin answered. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Seungmin’s heart hurt at the implication. He kisses Hyunjin’s shoulder. “I promise you, my love, that I will not touch that tree for as long as I rule by your side.”

“Then there is nothing to worry about.” Hyunjin hums under his breath.

Seungmin smiled and moved so that he could kiss along Hyunjin’s jaw and neck, tightening his arms around his husband’s neck.

Seungmin grinned.

His husband.

Hyunjin.

They reach their bedchambers and Seungmin almost doesn’t want to let go. Hyunjin laughs and makes a detour to the bathroom instead of straight to bed.

“Maybe a bath will be nice. To wash away the tiredness of the day.” he said as he laid Seungmin in the middle of the tub. Seungmin starts to whine when Hyunjin lets go of him but Hyunjin is quick to silence his complains with a loving kiss. He speaks against Seungmin’s lips. “I’ll be quick to fetch us glasses of wine. Start the bath for us, my love?”

“Okay.” he breaths out before Hyunjin pulls away completely.

As Seungmin watched Hyunjin exit the bathroom, he smiled.

After today, no one will dare question whether or not he belonged in the Underworld.

He ruled over the Underworld alongside Hyunjin now.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!! this has been sitting in my drafts for months now, i'm so glad i finally mustered up the courage to publish it ㅠㅠ this was so much fun to write so i really hope you had a great time reading as well!! *^^* ((and please note that the poem at the start is not mine, so ctto uwu)) 
> 
> tell me your thoughts on it down in the comments or on my [curious cat](https://curiouscat.qa/water_lili_es) or visit my [twitter](https://twitter.com/markeu_tuan93) for more stories!!


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